Maybach Exelero

Friday, May 05, 2006

A few weeks ago I've found a beautiful car on the internet ( Maybach Exelero ), and I was thinking to put something about her in this blog, but I hesitate.Now I really like this car, and I think you should see it to.

The Exelero project is actually a joint venture between Maybach and German tire manufacturer Fulda. Fulda has been making all sorts of high-performance rubber for almost a century, and is well known for using high-profile one-off vehicles to advertise itself. Past vehicles include high-speed buses, special trucks and racing cars. Oh yeah, Fulda also once used a super streamlined Maybach to test high-speed tires (over 200 kph) way back in 1938.

As you well know, car and tire technology has changed a lot, so Maybach and Fulda can't just rebuild a mere 200 kph (148 mph) car and call it a day. Fulda needs a car to test its 315/25ZR23 tire that is capable of speed of over 350 kph (217 mph). For those of you not literate in reading tire sizes: this tire will fit a 23-inch rim, be 313 millimeters wide (or over a foot wide) with a super-low profile sidewall. More importantly: this tire is not designed for race cars it's designed for standard street legal ride. Well, a street-legal ride that can go almost 220 miles per hour.

This optimized Maybach Type 12 engine is capable of making 700 brake horsepower and 1,000 newton meters (737 lb.-ft.) of torque. Obviously, those are some very impressive power numbers, but how does the car perform? Well, the Maybach Excelero was able to achieve a top speed of 351.45 kph (or about 218 mph).